JANET BARNES

Surname

Barnes

Forename

Janet

Date of recording

July 2013

Year of birth

1938

Place of Birth

Holton

Occupation

Fathers occupation

Farmer

Present Address

​Middleton

Location Interview

Middleton

Interviewer

Summary

David Robertson

Duration

112 Mins

No of tracks: 11

Track 1    Introduction
Track 2    Life at the farm, school and college.
Born 1938. Childhood at Yankee Lodge farm Middleton. Sister born 1944. Farm life with horses and tractors, four farm workers. School at six and a half at Middleton Primary. Thomas Mills Grammar School Framlingham after 11+. Mon-Fri stayed with Aunt in Framlingham. 8 O levels then to Sutton Bonnington to study for National Diploma of Dairying. Practical first year at local farms including Sibton and Leiston. Second year at college.
Track 3   Pathology Lab - Dairy Farming - Exchange trip to Canada.
Trained as Pathology Lab technician Essex Hospital then Diamonts Farm Pendringham for 2 years. Young Farmers social and professional activities. 1962 selected for 3 months exchange trip to Canada working on farms in southern Ontario. Visit to New York. Back to Yankee Lodge in severe winter of 62/63. Farmland sold in April.
Track 4    Turkey Farm - Marriage -Sizewell -South Africa
Office admin Le Grys turkey farm Halton. (Bernard .Matthews bought later). Met Sizewell engineer John Barnes and married Feb1965. Life and homes Aldeburgh, Middleton and Aldringham. 1977 John new job at South African Power Station. Janet involved with Johannesburg Botanical gardens and with Bird Club. Moved to Botswana.
Track 5        Life in Botswana - Headley Ing in Aldeburgh
From 1980 for ten years in Gaborone, Botswana. John managing a Power Station. Janet involved with Bird Club creating a Bird Atlas and with plant collecting and Museum library. Domestic life - Gloria their maid. ANC activities. Contact about plants with neighbour from home, Headley Ing and about his clock shop, bees and lifestyle
Track 6     Home 1989 More of Headley Ing & Aldeburgh. Family.
Headley's shop; Cullens Music shop; Butchers Outfitters. Aldeburgh people. Life at home.
Track 7     US Airforce Parham. History of Middleton Farms.
Flying Fortresses at Parham. Reading father's farm papers led to research and development of history project on Middleton Farms. Recording 100 or so interviews with farmers and farm workers about their lives and the workings of the farms, landowners and suppliers.
Track 8 Yankee Farm memories and more oral history of Middleton
1952 Electricity arrives. Light! Push for phones. Farmhouse equipment. Pony and trap deliveries. Shopping. More of History project -details from 1845 farm Tenancies 'Owners supply a horse to tread the straw to patch the walls'. Sheep walks. Packway through Middleton.
Track 9    More of Middleton from Janet's oral histories
Use of fields 1800s 'Up corn - Down horn'. Middleton Moor grazing - cattle, geese. .Red Pole Herd book. Suffolk Punch. People on the farm. Suffolk expressions.
Track 10  'Retired' life back in Suffolk.
House searching. Visiting the elderly who are on their own. Local personalities. Church history. SWT. Reflections on farm life then and now.
Track 11   Concluding remarks

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